Dave Pelz clinic provides some help for short game

18 short lessons should go a long way to improving your game

My chipping tends to be, well, erratic. It ranges from bad to horrendous.

A few years ago I became afflicted with the chip shanks — or chanks — and every now and then the ball squirts sideways rather than toward the cup.

So when I received an e-mail offering a spot at a Dave Pelz short-game clinic, I immediately thought: What a great opportunity for journalism. Or something like that.

Normally my strategy for improving goes like this: Take one lesson a year, then never practice.

Maybe that's why I'm a 15-handicap whose scores this year have ranged from 87 (Edgewood Valley) to 100-and-God-knows-what (Augusta National).

The Pelz six-hour clinic costs $425 (though it was comped for this reporter). Pelz promises a 6-to-1 teacher-to-student ratio, but Wednesday at Cog Hill, we had eight students and two instructors: Marc Albert and Chuck Holesha, a former assistant pro at Beverly Country Club.

Our student body included a father-son team from the North Shore, a husband-wife combo who described their ages as "retired … no, rejuvenated" and a police officer who grew up playing at Joe Louis in Riverdale.

I told them I would contact them in September to check on their progress — and see if they felt the investment (time and money) was worth it.

As for me, I hit the best chips of my life after learning the proper setup.

"Fantastic," Holesha said after observing a few.

But that was just practice. I won't know if I've been cured of the chanks until I hit the course.

In the meantime, here are 18 tips from the clinic:

1. Easy does it: On wedges and bunker shots, Pelz advocates "dead hands" — a grip pressure of 1 out of 10. "It can never be too light," Albert said. (One exception: hacking out from the rough.)

2. Never decelerate: Take too long a backswing for a chip or pitch, and you'll be thinking "Uh-oh" on the downswing. Your brain will slow your swing and wreck your spine angle, and the result will be a fat or thin shot. Think short-to-long.

3. Strike a pose: "I can make you a better golfer instantly," Albert said, "if I can get you to hold your finish." Hold it until the ball stops — or goes in the cup.

4. Don't take a practice swing: Take a "preview" swing that mimics the motion you want to repeat.

5. Quiet the lower body: This will give you the best chance to strike the ball crisply.

6. Do not keep your head down: It will restrict your body turn through acceleration.

7.Chillax: Tension leads to tight forearms, and that can affect your shoulders and spine angle.

8. What's the rush? A backswing should be like a pitcher's windup — slow. Generate your power on the downswing.

9. Man in the mirror: Analyzing your swing in a full-length mirror is better than video. It provides instant feedback.

10. Ball position is paramount: The ball needs to be back in your stance on chips, middle on pitches and equal to the front toe on bunker shots. From sand, you're trying to hit it fat by contacting the sand, not the ball.

11. Flare out your lead (left) foot: Makes it easier to turn.

12. Do not hold the face open on bunker shots: "Even though Johnny Miller says it on Sundays," Albert said. Pelz advocates rotating through the ball and finishing with 99 percent of your weight on the front foot.

13. Change your club, not your swing: Want to hit a 40-yard bunker shot? Try an 8-iron. For something high and soft, use a 60-degree or even 64-degree wedge.

14. Get your putter fitted: My Ping CRAZ-E G2i should be bent two degrees upright to improve the lie angle, and I need an inch whacked off the top to help my setup.

15. Do not putt on an arc: Pelz advocates "pure-in-line-square" rather than around the body. The idea is if you putt on an arc, your clubhead will be square to the ball only for a split second.